Sockeye Reintroduction II

The Yakama Nation started trapping at Priest Rapids Dam on July 05th 2011. At that time the counts was approaching 95,000 sockeye at Bonneville Dam. The YN, to start, trapped 50 fish on the first day. The trapping concluded early due to the large number of sockeye entering the trap. The day of trapping started at 8 am and done before 8:30am. A total of 4100 fish were collected.

YN trapped and hauled on 1000 sockeye to Cooper Lake on July 11th of which 10 were radio tagged. The number of sockeye retrieved for this year reintroduction increased from 2500 to 4100. We put 3100 sockeye in Cle Elum Lake and 1000 in Cooper. In 2011 was the first year that the Sliding Scale was implemented into our Adult collection.

The final count for Sockeye at Bonneville Dam in 2011 was 185,796. According to the scale @ 180,000 the take increase to 4000 sockeye take at PRD.

YN started tracking radio tags the week of August 04th and still continue to track today. The first group of sockeye started to migrate from Cle Elum Lake up into the watershed on September 06, 2011.

Specific worksite tasks are as follows:

1) Lake Cle Elum Worksite: 3,100 sockeye fish were outplanted.

2) Cooper Lake Worksite: 1,000 fish were outplanted and 10 fish were radio tagged.

The main goal of this project is to reintroduce sockeye back to Yakima River basin (est. numbers of 200,000 historically). They were extirpated from the basin in the late 1890’s when crib dams were built for irrigation storage. This prevented adults from returning to their spawning areas above the five lakes. Also, continue to think outside the box concerning sockeye. This could include removal of evasive species (lake trout) through fishing derbies or gill netting off of spawning areas or fertilizing the lakes to enhance zooplankton (food source for young sockeye) The Yakama Nation and the other federal and state agencies feel that Lake Cle Elum is the best suited lake for the reintroduction as its upper watershed is within the Alpine lakes wilderness area and the rest is in forest service control.

Four natural glacial lakes in the Yakima River Basin supported sockeye salmon historically, but the salmon were extirpated in the early 1900s when timber crib dams were constructed at the outlets of the lakes. Cle Elum Lake was first dammed in 1906. In 1933, the contemporary Cle Elum Dam was constructed to increase the water storage capacity for irrigation. Currently there are three stocks or evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) of sockeye salmon in the interior Columbia River basin: Lake Wenatchee ESU (Washington), Okanogan River ESU (Washington), and the Snake River ESU (Idaho). The Snake River sockeye salmon ESU was listed under the ESA on November 20, 1991. A subsequent final listing determination issued by NOAA-Fisheries on June 28, 2005 reconfirmed the endangered status of the Snake River sockeye salmon ESU, which primarily occurs in the upper Salmon River basin in Redfish Lake. The Lake Wenatchee and Okanogan River sockeye salmon ESUs in central Washington State were found to be not warranted for listing under the ESA, and are therefore potential donor populations for sockeye salmon reintroduction into Cle Elum Lake. Both upper Columbia stocks support terminal area sport and tribal ceremonial and subsistence fisheries when annual run abundance is sufficient.